Dropped $200 on a satellite messenger for the JMT and it was a total waste

Wendy Lane · 2026-05-06T17:00:03.396918+00:00

I was hiking the John Muir Trail last summer and bought a Garmin inReach Mini 2 thinking I'd need it for safety. Ended up having signal the whole way and it just sat in my pack buzzing about weather alerts. Anyone else find these things overpriced for well-traveled routes?

paige_owens54mo ago

Overhyped gear for a trail that's basically a highway.

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foster.tessa4mo ago

Wait, did you have yours set up right? I used to be all about buying the fanciest safety gear for every trip, but after borrowing a friend's inReach on the Colorado Trail last year I totally changed my mind. It kept dropping messages and was more annoying than useful on a route that's basically a dirt road with cell service every 10 miles. I'm with you now - for popular trails like the JMT, it's just a heavy brick that buzzes at you.

6

nancyg144mo ago

Whoa wait, you actually got weather alerts buzzing through the whole JMT? I took the same device on the PCT in Washington and it was basically a brick for three days straight. Couldn't even send a preset message to my sister.

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